First Draft

Jet ski Update and Hitler

Last night on Colbert Report....

Fuck Shit Jesus, They Got An Army!

Gays are coming to get us again! Quick, everybody disavow them!

The court's decision is likely to re-energize an election-year debate over same-sex marriages and gay rights. By injecting the social issue into a contest that has been dominated by the economy and Iraq, the ruling could provoke a backlash among conservatives, drawing them to the polls in large numbers.

Someone hold me.

You know, I can hear the meeting now, in which people tell Clinton and Obama (forget McCain, he's off somewhere eating oatmeal with a straw) to be careful and be cautious and worry, worry, worry, worry because all those moral values voters seized on gay marriages in Massachusetts and San Francisco as reasons to vote Republican, so don't look too liberal by favoring equal protection under the fucking law. Not that they need much encouragement to be chickenshit on this issue, apparently:

Both of them should be ashamed. There's absolutely no reason they couldn't at least have said, "Congratulations to California's same-sex couples, who took a step forward toward equality today," which wouldn't even have been inconsistent with their civil union wankery. It's just unkind to have issued such flat sentiments.

Lest the "gay marriage is going to doom the Democrats again so they'd better go out and kick the shit out of some gays to make a point" argument have time to sit there and rot and release its spores into the atmosphere, I'm gonna go back to something our former blogmate Tena wrote after the 2004 election, when the same scaredy-cats losing their little minds over gay marriage now were losing them before:

No link, just another editorial. But this is important and I must say it publicly.

I have never in my life been so disappointed in people as I am in the so-called liberals who are all over the blogosphere bashing gays and blaming them. If y'all want to be fascist appeasers, then be my guest, but you are not going to have me as a companion on your particular road to tyranny and hell.

I will never give up my principles. I will not alter my morality. I will stand with my gay and lesbian and transsexual fellow citizens to the bitter end. It is non-negotiable. I will go where they go and I will fight for them with my last breath. That's final.

Those of you now joining the witch hunt can go to hell. Fine bunch of progressives some of you are. I cry "Shame" on all of you who are daring to blame same sex marriage for the loss of this election.

Because, fuck yeah. There are plenty of things in this world to be scared of. There are plenty of things in this world to fear. Love isn't one of them. Fairness isn't one of them. Equality isn't one of them. And we are either all safe, all loved, all equal, all welcome, all protected, or none of us are. Full stop.

A.

My Humble Suggestions for Changes to the Political Discourse

To start with, carry one of these at all times.

So.  The pendejo-in-chief went to Israel and compared Barack Obama's idea of negotiating with Iran (you know, a sovereign nation-state that has divergent interests from ours, which makes them eeeeeevil) to, and I'm not kidding, the appeasement of Hitler in the 1930's.

That's right. 

Let's look at what Bush actually read off of the TelePrompTer.  First, he said this crazy shit:

My only regret is that one of Israel's greatest leaders is not here to share this moment.  He is a warrior for the ages, a man of peace, a friend.  The prayers of the American people are with Ariel Sharon. 

A four-year-old child would call bullshit on that.  It's kind of hard to be "a warrior for the ages" and "a man of peace" at the same time.  Maybe, if you were a reluctant warrior, like Cincinnatus, or George Washington, that description might apply.  But to Ariel Sharon?  That's just crazy talk.  Oh, and my prayers aren't with him.  They're not with anyone else, either; they're all entreaties to the Lottery God for me to hit the Powerball.

But that's just the warm-up for the full-on batshit insanity.

        The fight against terror and extremism is the defining challenge of our time.  It is more than a clash of arms.  It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle.  On the one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth.  On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, inciting fear, and spreading lies.

        This struggle is waged with the technology of the 21st century, but at its core it is an ancient battle between good and evil.  The killers claim the mantle of Islam, but they are not religious men.  No one who prays to the God of Abraham could strap a suicide vest to an innocent child, or blow up guiltless guests at a Passover Seder, or fly planes into office buildings filled with unsuspecting workers.  In truth, the men who carry out these savage acts serve no higher goal than their own desire for power.  They accept no God before themselves.  And they reserve a special hatred for the most ardent defenders of liberty, including Americans and Israelis.

        And that is why the founding charter of Hamas calls for the "elimination" of Israel.  And that is why the followers of Hezbollah chant "Death to Israel, Death to America!"  That is why Osama bin Laden teaches that "the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest duties."  And that is why the President of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

        There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words.  It's natural, but it is deadly wrong.  As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously.  Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.

        Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.  We have heard this foolish delusion before.  As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared:  "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided."  We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.  (Applause.)

How about that?

Okay.  First of all, the text as presented here is not what Bush said.  He said "genius" in the last quoted paragraph above, not "ingenious."  Check the audio if you don't believe me.  But that's a minor thing.  Check out that weak-ass "Some seem to believe" construction.  Can this man say anything straight?  If you have a problem with a single person's argument, call that person out.  Don't pull this passive shit of "some think" or "some believe" or "there are those who say."  That bullshit doesn't fly in high school essays.  Shouldn't we expect better from our President?  Also, the Senator who Bush quoted?  He was a Republican.  From Idaho.  You know, the "real" America.  And, finally, WHAT THE FUCK?  You're going to the Knesset to compare an American Presidential candidate's to strategy to the appeasement of Adolf Fucking Hitler?  I'm kind of shocked they didn't give him the bum's rush right there.  Way to a) demean the political process of your own country and b) be amazingly insulting to your hosts.  There's no fucking way al-Qaeda, or Hamas, or Iran pose a threat to anyone similar to the way Germany menaced its neighbors in the late 1930's.  Germany was one of the most powerful states in the world at that time.  Iran is a weak, weak country.  Hamas only has a pseudo-state.  And al-Qaeda?  They got nothin' in terms of ability to destroy another state.  The entities listed above certainly do not pose a genocidal threat to Israeli Jews, irrespective of public bluster to that effect.  You just can't compare the experience of European Jews in the 1930's and 1940's to Israeli Jews today.  Last I checked, there was no IDF in Europe in the mid-20th century.  Let's recap:  the State of Israel was founded, in large part, because of the desire of Jews to have a state (and a military) so that the events of the Holocaust could not be repeated.  There's no WAY some punk motherfucker living in a cave is gonna be able to have a genocidal impact on the modern Israeli state. 

And, as for negotiating, it's what the Israelis (and the Americans) have to do with hostile countries.  I mean, I don't recall us invading and conquering the Soviet Union, do you?  I seem to remember summits and treaties, even though there was definite hostility between East & West.  And, as I'm sure you realize, those thousands and thousands of nuclear warheads did pose an existential threat to us back then. 

So Bush goes to a different country to, in his bullshit passive-agressive way, call out a member of a rival political party back home.  So much for "politics ends at the water's edge," huh?

Now we get to the important part:  My suggestions.

1. Fight back.  Amazingly, the Democrats actually are pushing back on this.  In the past, my party has kind of meekly accepted bullshit like this, hoping that people would see it for what it is and, on their own, dismiss it as crap.  Well, people do tend to dismiss the dumb-ass rhetoric (except for the fucking dittoheads, and there's not much you can do about them).  What they don't dismiss is watching someone get punched in the face and then do nothing about it.  When someone hits you in the nose, you don't stand there waiting for an apology.  You kick that motherfucker right in the nuts, then crush his nose with an uppercut while he's doubled over in pain.  And that's the kind of shit that will win you the votes of people who think the Republicans represent strength, but don't see through their charade to just how fucking weak they are.
2. When confronting bullshit, use language appropriate to the material you're dealing with.  Senator Clinton, even though I appreciate her statement, called Bush's remarks "offensive and outrageous."  (Which, by the way, is the same phrase she used when talking about Rev. Jeremiah Wright.)  C'mon, Senator.  Don't stop there.  Say "offensive, outrageous, and fuckin stupid.  Does the President really think we can't tell the difference between some sorry motherfucker in a cave, or some douchebag wearing ill-fitting sports coats, and Adolf Fucking Hitler?  Hey, George, here's a news flash:  We're not as stupid as you, you fuck."  I mean, when your opponent goes Godwin on you, it's time to hammer the shit out of him or her for being an idiot.  Somehow, Joe Biden seems to understand a little bit of this point.  Good on him.  And that's not something you'll hear me say very often.

Now, there are some (heh heh) who will say that this crude language only cheapens our discourse.  To them I say:  Shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down.  The word "fuck" doesn't poison our discourse.  But comparing your political opponents' strategy to appeasing Hitler, especially when speaking in front of the Israeli parliament, does.  And before you can say "MoveOn had an ad where they compared Bush to Hitler," shut your fucking trap.  First of all, that's not what happened.  Second, even if it had, MoveOn is not an elected fucking official of the United States of America.  It's certainly not the most prominent elected official in the entire fucking country. 

So, to George Bush, and his speechwriters, we say:  Fuck you, you fuckin' fucks.

Friday Ferretblogging: The Great 2008 Basket Occupation Enters Its Second Week

A.

Pack It Up, Pack It In

Good fucking luck.

Man, would I like to play poker with these people. Blackjack. Craps.

Would I like to play any kind of game of chance with these fucking people.

They flew out to Vegas and did fourteen tequila shots and withdrew their life savings and put it all on black, and there was a crowd around them the size of Appleton, Wisconsin when the dice went flying. They took a look at George W. Bush, this feckless halfwit prince of nothing, said eh, he'll do, and elected his ass president (kind of).

Part of New York got terroristed up, and they said this is it, this is our moment, we're gonna wrap ourselves around this guy and tape ourselves to him with flag-decal duct tape and jump into a vat of superglue, because we now have a majority for the rest of our natural lives, whores. Sit up and take notice. They paraded around with tiki torches (in some parts of my town, fucking literally) and shut down a bunch of charities and deported a shit ton of immigrants and opened up a half dozen or so secret prisons, and nothing was gonna stop them, no thing on this earth was gonna stop them. Their boy swaggered onto an aircraft carrier with his dick swinging around and they knew, bitches, they knew it in their hearts for sure, that this was them and they were gonna fucking own it forever.

And that was fine with them, back then, when it was just brown people dying and someone else's country was getting blowed up. They didn't really give a flying fuck, did they? That the war was lie, that the law was a joke, that the Constitution was a toy, none of the people currently losing their precious little minds gave a great big juicy fuck about any of this back then. Four thousand plus American soldiers, countless Iraqis, mothers and daughters and husbands and sons, brothers and sisters, children on their way to school, roads and houses and places of worship, the fucking ... fact that we cannot turn the fucking lights on with any consistency, much less that we've ruined two countries for a generation or more, much less that our national dick is now firmly lodged in the bees' nest of the Middle East, we cannot keep the light bulbs lit. None of that bothered them up until about a week ago. It was somebody else's problem. Fuck it. Democrats are weak on terror and surrender monkeys and shit. Up until about a week ago, they were waving their big foam finger around and nobody gave a flying fucking fuck.

So let's not mistake this for one minute. Let's not for one minute pretend this is about a sudden twinging of conscience or realization of the cost of war or the ghost of Jacob Fucking Marley that has come to pay them a midnight visit. Let's not for one minute let them get away with appearing all of a sudden to be good guys, because they were here, too, the last five years, and none of them said shit.

They were fine with it until they realized it would lose them elections. And every change in course they make, every conciliatory word, every softballing of the future, every single move they execute now is about saving their own political asses and nothing fucking else. And every time one of them casts a vote, opens his mouth, waves a banner around, every time one of them now declares themselves reformed, one of the dirty fucking hippies who were right all along should be there to shove the meal they're trying to spit out right back in.

Hand the Democrats the war? Are you kidding me?

They were fine with it until Mississippi. Every move they make now only reinforces that truth. They were fine with it until they realized they couldn't hump it to the finish line one more time. Then they cut and ran, and they've told us themselves what we should think of people who do that. They were fine with it, all these years, until it was no longer useful to them.

And it's a measure of how morally dyslexic they are that they think basically admitting this is some kind of admirable thing, instead of so reprehensible that decent people, when seeing them in the street, should turn their backs.

A.

Karen Allen!

Shameless fangirling commences right now.

As a younger actor, I had a harder time enjoying the process. I was so serious about it all, there was more ego involved. I’d never worked on big action things where you spend you entire day navigating through snakes or having corpses fall on your head, and I was overwhelmed."

Lurve. I only wish somebody'd put up the scene of her drinking a dozen guys under the table, because man, when I saw that, I said, "That's what I want to be when I grow up."

A.

I Said a Flip, Flop, the Flippie the Flippie to the Flip Flop and You Don't Stop

Looky looky loo!  It's St. BBQ!

So, apparently, John McCain now thinks that we will find the magic ponies in Iraq in just four years (or eight Friedman Units, for those of you who prefer that unit of measure). 

This statement, of course, begs the question of what the fuck have we been doing there for the last five years?

You know, you'd think that someone who was involved with Vietnam wouldn't be so fucking stupid about setting dates for winning a counter-insurgency.  And, yes, I said stupid.  The other alternative is that he's lying his old ass off.  But I don't think he's clever enough to lie.  I'm not talking about just being wrong--I mean he's not capable of elaborate, intentional deception.  Hell, he's never had to--whatever bullshit he spews gets treated by the disgustingly obsequious press as the latest revelation from Jeebus himself.  He's never had to think quickly enough to come up with cover stories.  So skillful lying isn't part of John McBush's skill set.  Thus, I'm gonna go with fucking stupid.

Also, isn't this reversal of position also known, among the genteel pundit class, as a "flip-flop"?  I mean, this is the man who said he could see US troops in Iraq for a hundred years, right? 

This change of position will at least feed the Freepi.  Now they can add cut-and-run McCain to all their other hatred of him.  So Athenae will have lots of good things to give us from that fucking cesspool.

And, just so we don't forget, I'd like to re-run this little gem I created a short while ago:

Epic Failitude

2006--Bush Sr on W: "But he doesn't get to play much.The press at home give him hell if he goes out and plays golf"

In September 2006, George Bush Sr attended the Ryder Cup held at the K Club in Ireland. He gave an interview to BBC Five Live Sport's John Inverdale at the K Club. There is a post on the interview at the BBC Ryder Cup blog as well as the link to audio of the interview. I transcripted the following from that interview which can be heard starting at the 1:05 mark:

BBC Five Live Sport's John Inverdale: Does your son play?

George Bush Sr: The President? He's about 15,16. But he doesn't get to play much. The press at home give him hell if he goes out and plays golf. He came to visit Barbara and me the other day up in Maine where we are and ah said you got to come up [uninteligible] and play. He said no the press would just you know here we are fighting, so it's just not, not good. He can ride bikes. He can't run anymore but he rides bikes.

Or below is re-recording of the audio of above (35 seconds):

Broder Buyout

WaPo's David Broder is taking a buyout from the paper.....

Broder, reached by phone this afternoon, explained reasons for taking the buyout this year, as opposed to the last time it was offered, in 2006.

"It’s two things really," Broder said. "First of all, the paper is like every other paper--feeling the squeeze. And this does get me off the newsroom budget. That is one reason. The other reason is that it’s a generous buyout offer."

He'll still be a contract employee though.

Dog Days of Golf

Laura Bush answering children's questions last December about Barney's....

....favorite toys:

MRS. BUSH:  And you know what else he likes to play?  Golf.  (Laughter.) Because his nose can go down in the hole and he can retrieve the ball for the President. (Laughter.)

Column: I Have Hidden Your Keys

Chill.

Newsweek's Howard Fineman, in particular, is spending an awful lot of time during every primary's all-night coverage on MSNBC worrying publicly that nothing can heal this terrible rift between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters in time to elect Obama president in November.

"Well, it is going to take a lot of work," Fineman said solemnly last week, in the wake of Obama's all-but-assured victory. "It is going to take a lot of diplomatic effort. And ultimately, it's going to take Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and maybe Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama sitting down in a room together as principals working on this and piece by piece, brick by brick, time to put the party together."

He called the possibility that it could be done at all "a big if."

Pardon my French, but: Crap.

Who exactly are hardcore Democratic voters going to vote for in November? The man who thinks we should stay in Iraq for 100 years? The one who thinks he should be allowed to dictate a woman's medical decisions? The one who admits in public he doesn't really get the economy all that well, and hey, even if he did, let's toss you a little gas-tax bone and call it a day? That dude? The one married to a beer heiress who thinks she can finance her husband's campaign and not tell us about her taxes?

The one who's spending all his time posing as a straight-talking reformer when he can't even obey the campaign finance law with his name on it?

That guy. Yeah, I can see disgruntled Hillary supporters flocking to him in droves.

Especially women. You know how we like it, when old men tell us what our bodies are good for. You know how that always wins us over.

I'm not dismissing the very real hurt that people feel when their political hopes and aspirations come to naught. I am, after all, still John Kerry's biggest fan, four years after our political romance smashed on the rocks of George Bush's constituency of suckers (how do you like your gas prices now, guys?), so I'd never say you can't harbor resentment.

But to allow that resentment to be an excuse to sit out an election as important as this one?

I don't think most of my fellow Democrats are that -- small.

Note: I realize, looking this over more than a week after I wrote it, that it kind of comes off, "Who else you gonna vote for, chump?" and that's not what I meant at all. I meant that the idea that Democrats are damaged by this horrible primary and its horrible consequences and all the horrible hurt feelings that resulted and are therefore going to vote for John McCain, is a storyline that benefits Republicans and is being pushed by people like Fineman (the dude who thought Obama running for president meant he couldn't make racist jokes, let's all recall that tragedy) because it conforms to that which his halfbright readers already know: REPUBLICANS ROOL DEMOCRATS DROOL, and so on, and we shouldn't get too het up about it people trying to warn us off the whole, you know, voting thing.

In other words, that I'd take the argument from someone with less of a visible vested interest in keeping us stupid and lazy.

A.

Edwards to Endorse Obama

Tonight in Michigan

Nobody likes him

"The president swallows the microphone every time he opens his mouth."  -- Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA)

But what will the bottom number be? An oldie goldie to ponder that by....

Polar Bear added to endangered species list

From CTV.ca

On the eve of a court deadline, the U.S. Interior Department is adding the polar bear to the list threatened species. This comes after evidence that rising temperatures are causing Arctic Sea ice -- the bears' habitat -- to vanish.

This makes the mighty polar bear the first animal to be listed as endangered or threatened as a result of global warming.

Once upon a time I made the polar bear slideshow below for A. Here again....

The above and more polar bear pics HERE

UPDATE: Analysis HERE

I have a solution

Wingnut Katherine Kersten must  be beside herself. She has warned of the DFHs on bicycles who are out to ruin the Republican Convention with their chaos and mayhem. However THIS could really complicate matters as Trek Bikes has donated 1000 bikes for convention goers to use.....

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak announced Friday that 1,000 bikes will be stationed in the Twin Cities for use by visitors and anyone else looking for a free alternative to cars to get around during the convention.

The effort is sponsored by the Humana Inc. health insurance company in conjunction with the Bikes Belong cycling advocacy group, which also plans to take 1,000 free bikes to Denver for the Democratic National Convention from Aug. 25-28.

After convention-goers go home, the program, called Freewheelin, will leave 70 bikes in the Twin Cities, along with about 10 special bike racks as a seed for a permanent bike-sharing program in the community.

Yikes! Kersten has feared the city will make "Minnesota Nice" with the bikers which "isn't likely to dissuade determined anarchists." Reading between her lines, it seems she prefers the NY approach.  But now what if  mass arrests of cyclists  snag some biking Republicans! Eeegads just think of the indignity of that.

I have a solution.

All Republicans on bikes need to wear official Republican clothing:

I'm thinking no DFH Critical Mass infiltrating anarchist would suffer the indignity of taking that hit for their cause.

(Of course there is still a critically massive problem of those Zubaz getting caught in the bike's chain to contend with)

Today Athenae's Obsession with the Freepi: One of Those Days

Apropos of Jude's post below, I just HAD to see how the Freepi were taking it:

OUCH...Things were so bad they brought in Cheney and even that didnt work

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As one Freeper said in another thread, it’s panic time. Our electoral prospects are not good.

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One more thing: thank you Trent Lott. Enjoy your stupid lobbying.

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He will have NEGATIVE COATTAILS because we are clearly abandoning "Conservative" in favor of "Me Too!", and "Big Government" and "Change" -- all recipes for disaster. The wise Republican will actually run AGAINST McCain.

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Can anything be done to keep Bush from speaking at the Republican National Convention this year?

---

Yep once again:

1. The failure of conservative commentators

2. Conservative bloggers

to defend a conservative president, come back to haunt them.

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Can anything be done to keep McCain from speaking at the Republican National Convention this year?

---

The MS GOP ran ads of Rev. Wright. Didn’t do much good did it? Today on Rasmussen, Dems are trusted more than the GOP on the top ten issues from the economy to healthcare to the environment. The generic Republican is toxic. The public, apparently, wants to poke conservatives in the eyes.

A.

FYYFF shirts available

FYYFF shirts are now available at Dirty Coast:

FYYFF

Ashley Morris was too big for words so 5 letters need to suffice.  For those of you who are out of the loop, read this and consider yourself part of the krewe. He spoke to our shared frustration and hope for a better future in New Orleans. And he was one hell of a Saints fan.

All proceeds of this shirt sale will go to Ashley’s family through the Ashley Morris Memorial Fund.

Get yourself one

 

Theological Dumbassery

So when aliens probe you, is it still an abomination unto this Lord?

Okay, this is the kind of thing that makes me glad I abandoned church a long time ago.

Let's see here.  According to this priest/astronomer, belief in intelligent beings that are not earthly is not incompatible with belief in the Catholic god.

Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that like saying that belief in god (an intelligent being that is not earthly) is not incompatible with belief in god?

I'm so glad we have Father Funes to clear that up for us.

Flush

I received my Bush Boom rebate check. Now I can buy groceries and fill the car up with gas. Maybe I'll have enough left over to rent Juno......

What are you doing with yours?

Good News! Gas Prices Fell 2% Last Month!

According to the Bush Labor Department.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Inflation pressures eased a bit in April despite the biggest jump in food prices in 18 years.

The Labor Department reported Wednesday that consumer prices edged up 0.2 percent last month, compared to a 0.3 percent rise in March.

The lower inflation reflected a flat reading for energy, which helped offset a 0.9 percent jump in food costs as prices climbed for many basic items, from bread and milk to coffee and fresh fruits.

The unchanged reading for energy reflected a big 4.8 percent jump in natural gas prices, offset by a 2 percent decline in gasoline costs.

The reported drop in gasoline prices reflected the government's accounting process, which discounts expected seasonal price changes.

Since gasoline prices normally rise significantly in April, the 5.6 percent rise in prices for the month turned into a 2 percent drop after the government adjusted for normal seasonal changes. That was little comfort for motorists now paying record prices at the pump, which are nearing $4 per gallon.

Pony Power

One must wonder why Republikkkans still support the man who has almost single-handedly destroyed their party.

The [Gallup] poll finds President Bush's approval rating at 29%, only a shade above his personal worst approval score of 28%, first reached in April and repeated earlier in May. However, his rating would be even lower if not for the support of most Republicans.

Current Republican approval of Bush is much lower than it was early on in his presidency; however, it remains far better than approval from Democrats. Two-thirds of Republicans (66%) approve of Bush's job performance today, compared with only 7% of Democrats.

Strange and Wonderful Things Are Afoot

That is the First Congressional District of Mississippi

So what, you might ask?  What do those 22 counties have to do with me?

Interesting questions.

As you probably know, MS-01 held a special election last night to replace former Rep. Roger Wicker, who became a US Senator following Trent Lott's resignation (so he could spend more time with his hairpieces). 

Wicker was a Republican, in a district that went 62-37 Bush in 2004.  Wicker himself won reelection in 2006, despite the huge wave of Democratic wins in the House, by 66-34.  The Republican douchebag who ran for his vacant seat is a guy by the name of Greg Davis.  Democrat Travis Childers opposed him. 

And Childers won.  By 54-46% of the vote. 

Uh, Wow.  Mississippi now has three (of four) US Representatives who are Democrats.

And the Republicans didn't roll over, either.  They were trying out their strategies for the fall--tying Childers to Obama (I don't think the two have ever met, Obama didn't endorse Childers' campaign, and, uh, this wouldn't be an appeal to racists, would it?), mentioning Jeremiah Wright, as if he had fuck-all to do with anything, and even bringing in Dick "Dick" Cheney to stump for Davis.

Didn't work.  Didn't work at all. 

106,590 people voted in this election--and it will only fill the seat until the end of the year.  Now, the Census Bureau tells me that, as of 2006, 734,271 people lived in the counties in that Congressional district.  Overall, 26.1% of the population of Mississippi is over 18, and thus nominally eligible to vote (this of course excludes people in jails, prisons, or convicted felons who have served their terms, as they are excluded from voting in that state).  I'm gonna assume, and I think it's reasonable to do so, that the over-18 percentage for MS-01 is about the same as the rest of the state.  Thus, we have 542,626 people over 18 in that district.  And about twenty percent turned out for a special election runoff.  That's pretty good, especially considering that, nationwide, only about two-thirds of eligible voters are registered.  In Mississippi, the fraction of eligible voters who are registered is even smaller, but we'll be conservative here and assume that 67% of those old enough to vote in this district are registered.  That gives 363,560 voters.  And the turnout of registered voters under these assumptions would be 29%.  And that's a pretty damn amazing turnout for a runoff in a special election that only matters until the end of this year.

This, my fellow First Drafticans, is bad, bad, BAD news for the Republicans come November.  Which means that it's great news for the non-evil segment of the population.

The Republicans are FUCKED.  They're gettin' fourteen-and-a-half with no lube.

This is northeastern Mississippi we're talking about here.  I looked at the county-by-county demographics (yes, I'm that much of a dork), did some calculating, and this district is, overall, 70.85% white.  In the entire district, only one county is majority black--Clay county, where 56.8% of the people are African-American.  If the GOP can't win in rural Mississippi, among a 71% white population, even when making explicitly racist appeals, they are so fucked they're not gonna know which end is up this November.

They got nothin'.  Check out this bit, from the CNN article linked somewhere above:

While Childers attacked Davis for supporting trade deals the Democrat blamed for costing Mississippi jobs and for raising taxes as fees as mayor, the National Republican Congressional Committee sponsored a television ad tying Childers to Obama and the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

In the ad, Childers is shown next to Kerry and Obama while the Illinois senator's ranking from the National Journal as the most liberal senator is noted.

In an ad paid for by Davis, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is shown and a narrator chastises Childers for not publicly denouncing the pastor's controversial remarks. That ad also claimed Obama had endorsed Childers.

See?  Nothin'.  Fuck 'em.  Childers is talking about shit that matters to people--jobs.  How to eat.  I'm not terribly happy with his anti-tax rhetoric (he's not going to be a darling of us lefties, that's for sure, but that's a battle for another day), but he's at least talking about actual policies that impact people's lives.  The Republicans, on the other hand, employed this "strategy:"

LIBRULS!  NEGROES!  CRAZY NON-WHITE PREACHERMAN! BAD BAD BAD BAD!

And that's what they've got for November.  If it ain't working in Mississippi, people, it ain't gonna play anywhere else.

I was born in Mississippi.  I lived in Lowndes County, part of MS-01, for a couple of years when I was in high school.  My mother's mother grew up in Clay county, picking cotton during the Depression when she should have been in school.  So this isn't just an exercise in number-crunching for me.  I really am amazed that the GOP is losing its grip on the rural, white South. 

And it just makes my fucking day.  If you see me later, smiling, singing to myself, and walking down the sunny side of the street, you'll know why.

Primary Night Crack Van: Because You Begged Us Edition

I'll be out until later, so you'll be driven by the lovely and talented virgotex. Posts in the van belong to their posters. NO VIOLENCE. No cheap booze, either. We drink the good stuff from here on out.

Update: Van closed! Thanks to all for stopping by and for Virgo's driving!

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Today On Holden's Obsession With [Yesterday's] Gaggle

Dana Says Bad Poll Numbers Are Due To War In Iraq -- And What About Those Gas Prices!

Q Yes, Dana, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll says that 82 percent of Americans believe the country is heading on the wrong track; that's up 10 points from a year ago. What do you say to those 82 percent?

MS. PERINO: Well, look, we're aware of polls. They're something that I know that news media organizations love to do, and in fact it helps -- every week you could see a new poll from multiple organizations. So I think that what we would say to that is that, one, we understand that the war in Iraq has brought down -- has brought negative feelings about where the country is headed. But also, one thing you can track over and over again through the years is high gas prices. High gas prices have a really negative effect on the psychology of the country, as well as on the economy. It's like a drag on the economy and a tax on the working people.

So best -- the most important thing we can do is make sure that, first of all, Congress doesn't do any more harm to the problem and exacerbate higher gas prices. And also, we can take some steps to try to get us out of this mess, because we have seen this over time, over the past several years; every spring these gas prices go up, and mostly because we have problems with supply and demand. There's a lot of demand, growing demand throughout the world, and a limited supply.

So we need to do a couple of things: one, drill domestically here in environmentally sensitive ways so that we can become less dependent on foreign sources of energy, and at the same time continue to push investment into these new technologies like lithium-ion batteries, which would allow all of us to have the opportunity to buy a vehicle that runs on batteries for the first 40 miles, which is pretty much the average for daily use in America.

So there's a variety of things that we can do. But in regards to the poll numbers, I'll just refer you to your own experts.

Change In Position?  What, And Abandon Missionary?

Q Dana, what about the calls from members of Congress to stop putting oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, including a letter recently from several Republican senators to do that? Any change of position from the White House?

MS. PERINO: Sure. Look -- change of position? I should have let you ask your question first before I say, sure. No, our position hasn't changed, in that this is -- the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is in place for specific national security reasons, in case there are supply disruptions. We tap into it every once in a while when we have a major supply disruption, like we did, I think, right after Katrina.

But the President has -- believes that we need an even larger Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to protect ourselves against oil shocks, such as, like I mentioned, instability that might happen in a country around the world.

Drilling Down

Q What specific steps -- when you say the President says we should be doing more domestically, what specifically should we be doing?

MS. PERINO: Jim, you must have been gone for the past three weeks. We talk about it every day.

Q Well, I'll tell you what. He talks about drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, but as Representative Peterson, Republican from Pennsylvania, pointed out last Friday, you have a dual policy. In the President's own budget, he prohibited the Department of Interior from spending any money on pre-leasing or leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf. So the President's budget precludes any drilling or exploration of the Outer Continental Shelf, and yet he says we should be drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf.

MS. PERINO: Let me go back and look at that, because I think there's different reasons for that.

[snip]

Q As you know, one of the biggest reserves of oil and gas is right off the coast of Florida. Florida has been (inaudible) drilling all over the Outer Continental Shelf on the East. The President made a deal with his brother not to drill in Florida. Is the President now reconsidering --

MS. PERINO: I think that you -- it's a lot more complicated than that, Jim, and I think you have to go back and look at the miles that they talk about, in terms of how far out the drilling would be. But again, I would point you to a state like Virginia, which, on a bipartisan basis, their state decided that they wanted to do this, and they were precluded from doing so. I think that --

Q Florida is a gold mine, and we haven't actually --

MS. PERINO: Look, you can -- the same could be said about ANWR. I mean, there's a lot of different places that we could find sources of energy here in the United States.

Q The President didn't make a deal with the Governor of Alaska. He made a deal with his brother.

MS. PERINO: But Jim, we're not talking about -- there's -- as I just said, there's lots of different places. And I would point you back to there's a hundred-mile limit, or something like that -- this is going back several years ago, so it's slightly more complicated than how you're just trying to paint it here.

Arrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhh

No, I'm not fucking feeling fucking lucky.  Just fucking shoot me already, would you?

Hate grading. Hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it .

Someone please put me out of my misery.

Crack Van Tonight

Be here. 5-ish, Central.

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Reasons to Believe?

NO REALLY.

Man. If you tried ...

For their next re-branding effort, the Republicans begin Operation Never Gonna Keep Me Down:

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'What Was So Honest About It?'

"Errors are not lies," says Feith, and that's the last sentence before he starts stammering.

I like Stewart's comparison of errors vs. lies to manslaughter vs. homicide. Either way, somebody's dead at the end, so somebody else should GO TO JAIL.

Thanks to jjj.

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I Always Have Time For Ponies

We switched to Vista at work three weeks ago, and it's EATING MY ASS!!!

But I still have time for the ponies.

Public disgruntlement neared a record high and President Bush slipped to his career low in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Eighty-two percent of Americans now say the country's seriously off on the wrong track, up 10 points in the last year to a point from its record high in polls since 1973. And 31 percent approve of Bush's job performance overall, while 66 percent disapprove.

Every Day

I thank God for the Internet:

The internet is a funny, wonderful place sometimes.

For example, if you search for "wooh potato hairless cat magical party" on youtube, it comes up with an exact match to a video.

Yes. Yes it does:

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